


Hands

by IvyCpher



Category: Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Genre: Crying, F/M, Hands, Pre-Relationship, Reading, Reading Aloud, Winesburg Ohio refferences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23166394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyCpher/pseuds/IvyCpher
Summary: Edward likes to read but can't handle books because of his hands. Kim reads him her assigned school books and one of them sticks with him.
Relationships: Kim Boggs/Edward Scissorhands
Comments: 9
Kudos: 56





	Hands

Edward liked the thought of school. To him it sounded like a very interesting place. A place to go just to learn things. He would have really liked to go to Kim's high school with her, but since his hands were considered weapons, he wasn't allowed inside the building without special permission.

Peg noticed very early on how Edward liked to learn new things and dug out some of Kim's and Kevin's educational books and letter flashcards that they had used when they were little and learning how to read. With them, she helped teached Edward the basics of reading. Aside from teaching him how to read, Peg also helped Edward improve his speech. 

Edward liked learning how to read and talk better, but he really enjoyed learning how to read the best. Suddenly, the Sunday newspaper made sense to him (at least the majority of it, he still had a problem with understanding big words) and when he went to the grocery store with Peg he delighted her by being able to read aloud all the brightly coloured ads and the names of the produce. There just seemed to be so many more things in the world to read than to say. Plus, Edward felt that he was a better reader than a speaker. If he fumbled over words in his head or took a long time to figure out what they were, that was okay, but if he mispronounced a word or just said something funny then there was always someone who sniggered behind his back.

Despite Edward really enjoying reading, it was hard for him to read for the obvious reason of he couldn't hold a book without momentarily turning into an electric paper shredder. Peg noticed this predicament and convinced Kim to read whatever books she was assigned for her english class out loud so that Edward would be able to learn just as her.

At first, Kim didn't like the idea of Edward sitting in on her reading her homework. Edward knew that and a part of him felt awkward, but a bigger part of him felt excited to be in Kim's room with her and to get to listen to a story that he would have been unable to read otherwise. But as the school year dawdled on, Kim and Edward grew closer. And when it came time for Kim to do her english work, there was no more huffy breaths and eye rolls as she let Edward into her room.

That week, Kim had brought home a new book from her english class, a book called  _ Winesburg, Ohio. _ Edward was excited to hear Kim read it. He just hoped that it wouldn't be as sad as the other books she had brought home to read like  _ Of Mice and Men _ and  _ The Lord of the Flies,  _ but Kim said that most english class books were sad and depressing. Edward wondered why they never read more happy books, but he didn't ask.

Edward sat down in the fluffy pink bean bag chair that Kim had in her room and looked up at her as she grabbed a fat dictionary from her little bookshelf by her vanity. Often while Kim was reading, she or Edward wouldn't understand a word and she would stop to look it up. Kim sat on her waterbed and placed the dictionary down beside her. Then she grabbed up a little book from near the head of her bed.

"We read the first part in school today," Kim said, flipping through a few pages. "It's kind of weird."

"What.. What is it about?" Asked Edward quietly.

Kim shrugged and looked up from the pages of the book, "Well, my teacher said it's supposed to be about the people in this weird town. Each story tells about someone new." She leaned over and grabbed a pillow from the head of her bed and her shirt hitched up a bit, revealing part of her stomach. "But I don't know, the first part kept talking about  _ grotesques  _ but I don't think it's scary." Kim plopped the pillow in her lap and then put her elbows on top of it.

Edward strained his mind for a moment, "'Grotesque'?" He asked feebly, his fingers absentmindedly clicking together quietly.

"My teacher told us in class. It's like…" Puckering her lips, Kim brought her hand to her cheek. "Being very ugly." She said finally, giving a nod down to Edward. "But I don't think it means in the way like if someone had a giant nose or no teeth, but like ugly on the inside. You dig?"

Edward thought hard for a moment and then nodded silently. Ugly wasn't a word that he understood very well because he didn't think people were ugly. He knew that people thought he was ugly for his pale skin, many scars, and odd hands. But he didn't think that he, or anybody (even if they had a really big nose or no teeth) was ugly. Edward knew that people could be scary or mean though and maybe that's what it meant. Being grotesque on the inside was just being mean to others.

With a smile, Kim brushed back her hair. "Okay, the first story is called  _ Hands." _ Edward's fingers flicked excitedly at the title of the story, an involuntary action that he couldn't help. "You ready?" Kim asked, looking over the edge of the book and down at Edward.

"R-Ready," Smiled Edward. He put his hands on his knees, his fingers pointed outward. The title of the story held his interest. He had never heard of a story about hands and wondered if he would like it. He hoped he would like it.

Kim's eyes twinkled brightly over the edge of the book. She brought the book close to her face so that Edward could no longer see her eyes and began to read the story called  _ Hands.  _ The story, Edward soon found out was about an old man named Wing Biddlebaum and his very odd hands.

Edward found himself immediately tangled in the story. He wanted to hear more. He liked it. He felt very similar to Wing Biddlebaum in the story and wanted to see what happened to him. He was so deeply interested in the story that even when he did not understand a word here and there, he did not ask Kim to stop to define it in the big dictionary besides her. He was worried that her pausing would break the flow of the story and it wouldn't be the same when she resumed. And although Kim fumbled a word occasionally, she didn't stop to define any of them for herself, and for that Edward was happy. It meant he got to hear the story uninterrupted.

The story was very simple, but also very serious in a way. It told of the main character, Wing Biddlebaum and his very unusual hands. Hands so unusual that everyone in the town admired them for how many berries they could pick in a day. They were also unusual in the way that their owner banged them on tables and waved them around when he spoke. Always doing something with his hands, they were never still. But as the story went on, it was told that Wing Biddlebaum was not always Wing Biddlebaum but Adolph Myers. Adolph Myers was the very same man as Wing Biddlebaum, all for except his name and for the fact that when he was Adolph, he was a very young man and a teacher in a different state. Adolph Myers, a school teacher and not a berry picker, had the same hands as Wing Biddlebaum. Hands that ventured and touched the faces and shoulders of his students in a loving parental manner. Hands that expressed his emotions and feelings in ways Adolph did not notice or concern himself with.

That was, until a new boy came to the school. A boy with a love for his teacher. A love more than the normal love that the teacher already showered all of his students in. A love that was more an obsession than a love. The new student, in his obsession with Adolph, dreamt about him in sick ways during the night. Then come morning he presented his dreams as truth to his peers. Word got around the school and to the parents of the students who were displeased. Whispers of half hearted suspicions in the teachers touches now came out as full forced accusations. One parent beat the teacher harshly, throwing his accusations at him like stones. Adolph Myers took the beatings but he did not understand why he got them. He did not know what his hands did and why they warranted him this punishment.

Soon the town was more than mad at the teacher for inflicting his sinful hands on their children. They gathered together one night and pulled the teacher from his home to hang him, but in their blinding anger, the mob accidentally let Adolph get away. He ran and ran, fearful for his life and fearful of his hands. Finally he settled in the old town of Winesburg, Ohio, were he had an old relative to keep him company. It was there where Adolph changed his name but he could not change his hands.

When Wing's old relative died and he too became old, he was still fearful of his hands and how they brought him to that place. He did not know what they did or what they had gotten him into. Because surely, he did not do those horrible things.

By the time Kim had finished the story, Edward's eyes were blurry with tears that he was unable to wipe away and his fingers clicking faster than before. The story made him sad. It made his chest ache in a way that no other of Kim's sad books had. He looked down at his own hands with his bleary eyes and a tear slid down his cheek.

"How did you like that one, Ed?" Kim asked, putting down the book. She gasped at the sight of Edward's tears and pink blotchy face and threw her pillow off her lap to join him on the floor. "What's wrong?" She asked quickly, reaching past him for a tissue box from her vanity. She pulled one out and dabbed at his face. When Edward didn't answer, she dropped the used tissue and put a gentle hand on his knee. "Edward?" She asked carefully.

Truthfully, Edward did not know what was wrong with him. He willed his fingers to stay still. He could feel Kim's hand on him, it was bleeding warmth through his pant leg like a small heater. He wondered if he ever had real hands if they'd be that warm. The story was…  _ sad.  _ But it wasn't so sad that it made him cry itself. It was sad in a way that Edward felt that he was in it. That he was the main character and his hands were some grand spectacle like a decorative hedge or a new fancy hairstyle, at least until they caused some trouble that he could not help…

The story made Edward sad in a way that no other story had before, but it also made him feel happy. Because even though the story was sad, it had someone like him, and Edward liked seeing himself in the story. "Could you…" Edward took in a slow breath. Despite the fact that Kim wiped all of his tears away, he felt like he was shaking. "Could you read it again?"

Blinking slowly, Kim looked at Edward for a moment, visibly unsure of his request. Then a gentle smile appeared on her face and she nodded. "Sure." She got up from her spot on the floor and grabbed her book from on her bed. And instead of sitting back down on her bed, she came back to Edward. "Scoot?" She asked, still smiling.

Jerkily, Edward moved, careful not to puncture the beanbag he was sitting on or knick anything else in the room. Kim sat beside him and he grew stiff, worried now more than ever of what his hands would do. He didn't want to hurt Kim.

The beanbag was far too small for two people and Kim must have felt how stiff and uncomfortable Edward was directly besides her. She put her book down on the floor and leaned away from him for just a second to carefully grab his elbow, "Here," She said gently. Moving his arm up, over her head, and around her. His arm curved around her but his hand did not, his knives pointed away from her body. A blush heated Kim's face. "That's more comfortable for both of us... Do you like it?"

The rest of Kim's body, Edward had learned, was just as warm as the palm of her hand. He liked it, he liked the warmth, and he liked her. He didn't like the cold and he didn't like being alone, but with Kim, Edward was neither of those things. And now he had no fear of his fingers acting up, they were out of the way now. He didn't feel like he was shaking now and he couldn't help smiling sitting this close to Kim. He nodded, "I li-like it."

"So do I," Kim said. She leaned forward to grab the book off of the floor and then sat back with her head against Edward's shoulder. She opened it to the  _ Hands  _ story again and began to read.

**Author's Note:**

> No excuse for this. Probably no one is going to read it too. So I'm reading Winesburg, Ohio (as you can probably guess) for my english class and Hands just stuck out to me as something Edward would be fascinated with.
> 
> If you feel like reading Hands because of this- well here you go!  
> https://www.bartleby.com/156/2.html
> 
> Comments are very much appreciated!!!


End file.
